February 17, 2015
Winding Down
Ban Boet Beach to Chumphon, Thailand
February 14, 2015
Ban Boet to Ao Bo Mao Beach
In the last couple of weeks I've been having conflicting thoughts about our bike trip coming to an end. I've definitely had desires to be back home cooking our own food, sleeping in our own bed, pillows that are not sacks of cement, brushing our teeth with tap water, our cat always taking over my pillow but too cute to ever get mad at... in short, the comforts of home.
However, I'm not wanting the biking to end. As it turns out, I've come to love biking as a way of travel and exploration. Biking has been better than I ever imagined it would be. But, the trip does have an end date, March 4th, only 18 days away, when we will be getting on a plane in Bangkok and flying home to Portland. And that plan isn't going to change either.
There are realities that soften the blow of having to end this biking trip, namely, heat and humidity. Our irritating friend, Heat, met us in Cambodia and then it's even nastier buddy, Humidity, joined us in southern Thailand. I don't get along well with either of these characters, having had heat exhaustion three times in my life. I doubt I would survive a fourth episode, so, in an effort to stave it off, I've been drinking more water than ever. But Andrea and I are flagging. We wear out more easily now and we know we won't be able to continue much longer in such weather. It just isn't as fun when we are so hot and sweaty all the time. The reality is, our trip is coming to an end. We want at least a week of doing nothing on a Thai island beach but after that it will be time to get back to our more comfortable temperate zone.
These have been my thoughts lately and as we rode away from Ban Boet Beach before breakfast this morning they came again. It was good to get an early start in an attempt to keep cooler. We had ridden only a short distance when we found ourselves riding down a very deserted road along an even more deserted stretch of beach. It was so deserted we wished we had known about it the night before because it was a perfect place in which to camp. But, instead, we thoroughly enjoyed our breakfast there sitting on washed up bamboo poles so large in diameter they were 'logs' to us. It was not just a breakfast of muesli but a great breakfast - enjoying muesli out of our bowls, soy milk, miniature banana slices, papaya, salt air and feeling as if we were the only people on earth. For the last three and a half months we had talked out anything we needed to talk out which meant we were even more at peace there together watching crabs carefully crawl out of their holes and then scoot back in when they sensed danger such as when we raised spoons to our mouths. The water looked soft and we were content.
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Maybe two hours later I needed to pump up my rear tire a bit so we panted up a steep hill to a large temple complex perched with views of islands and inlets. After my tire was full of air I wanted to take a brief look at the temple as long as we were there. Right away we ran into the head monk who was walking down a path which intersected ours. He immediately welcomed us to the temple and told us, "I have something for you." He knew few words in English and instead motioned for us to follow him. We joined a group of Thais who were all kneeling, waiting for the head monk to answer their questions. He sat down in what was like a throne in front of the group but he quickly dealt with us first.
We had no idea what he had up his sleeve. He gave us each a necklace and a blessed string to tie onto our wrists. He wasn't one to waste a lot of time and he couldn't chit chat in English, nor we in Thai, so he shooed us off towards the dining area telling us to, "gin khao" - literally "eat rice" which means simply, "to eat".
We found a whole array of foods inside the many stainless steel trays in the large dining area. It was a little odd serving ourselves food especially since we were the only people in the dining area. Had we really deserved any of it? But, the head monk had invited us to eat so we ate. We filled our plates not quite as full as we normally would and we enjoyed every bite. And there were cookies for dessert. We hadn't had cookies in months.
We thanked the monk as we stooped and made our way past the group of kneeling people. I told him in Thai that we were quite full now which made everyone laugh. There was something about that head monk that gave me a warm feeling. He had been instantly welcoming, nonjudgmental, unconditional in all regards. I got the feeling he is a real force for good in the area.
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Later, when I was feeling totally exhausted because of the heat, we stopped at an abandoned school and I cracked open our last coconut. I guess coconut juice contains electrolytes which must be why I revived. Across the street we saw a little store with an ice cream freezer. Stopping there revived me further and while we were sitting there a woman pulled up on her motor bike and gave us each a little banana-wrapped savory of sweet sticky rice. Why were people being so nice to us? In less than twenty four hours we had had a string of gifts from the locals. We felt honored.
February 15, 2015
Ao Bo Mao Beach to Chumphon
Today was essentially our last full day of biking. Last night we stayed in a really clean, (high class to us), bungalow on the beach where it felt as if we were the first foreigners to ever stay there. The owner didn't know one word of English and was very shy but thrilled to learn that I knew some Thai. We swam in the shallow bay for a long time and ate in a nearby restaurant that also felt as if they had never seen foreigners. It's so odd that we can be in a place exclusively for Thai tourists and not far down the coast come to a beach community jam-packed with foreign tourists. We peddled through the tourist beach of Wua Laen so quickly I hardly remember it. I always would much rather be in the Thai tourist areas or no tourist areas.
Then it was on to this rather large bustling town - Chumphon. Tomorrow we take the bus to Ranong which is on the west side of the Kra Isthmus, right at the southern tip of Myanmar. We'll choose which Andaman Sea, island paradise we want to laze upon. Island paradises are probably nice but I'm already missing biking and dreading the whole upcoming bus experiences.
Lovebruce
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